Amazon’s Echo Show to get rival as Google partners with Lenovo, LG and Sony in smart-screens

Google is working with Sony, JBL, LG and Lenovo to integrate their smart screen display products with Google Assistant.

Google announced today that it will bring its digital assistant to a variety of smart screen display products made by JBL, Lenovo, LG and Sony. These new devices, which Google teased in a YouTube video but did not fully reveal, will be available later this year. We reached out to Google about prices but haven’t heard back.

The search giant’s strategy to work with hardware partners sets it apart from competitor Amazon, which initially decided to make its own touchscreen devices, the Echo Show and Echo Spot.

Google showed off a variety of capabilities for the new touchscreen devices, including calling up calendars, recipes and photos via voice command. The device also lets users watch YouTube videos, a capability now absent from the Echo Show thanks to an ongoing conflict between Google and Amazon.

Google has been playing catch to Amazon and its digital brain Alexa recently. Amazon released the first generation of its Echo smart speaker in the summer of 2015, more than a year before the Google Home smart speaker made its debut. Several other Alexa-powered devices followed in the next few years, including the touchscreen-based Echo Show that was released last June.

Google doubled-down on smart speakers late last year, when it released the Google Home Max and Mini devices, and its emphasis on the Google Assistant hit a whole new level here at CES.

Also at CES today, Google announced a variety of new products powered by the Google Assistant, from smart speakers to TVs to headphones. Google is also adding the Google Assistant to Android Auto and working on deep integration with a variety of LG products.

Amazon’s Echo Show to get rival as Google partners with Lenovo, LG and Sony in smart-screens was last modified: January 11th, 2018 by admin